Fighting Fake News with REAL 19/10/21; Grumpy Geezer; WOW Wrap, Are we becoming Political Trump’s?
Tag: Trump
As our recent investigation detailed, law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol testified to Congress that they believed the mob of Trump extremists was far more heavily armed with guns than is definitively known. Internal communications from January 6 among US Park Police and other agencies that have since been made public support that view. The lack of certainty, the officers told lawmakers, was a result of their limited capacity to make arrests that day amid the sheer number of people, compounded by fears that taking more aggressive action could set off perilous violence. A document obtained recently by a government transparency watchdog, Property of the People, contains indications that the FBI had specific intelligence, prior to January 6, about armed people headed for the nation’s capital. According to emails circulated among FBI agents in the bureau’s Seattle field office on January 5, intelligence analysts with the Washington State Fusion Center had specifically noted social media comments suggesting that some residents of the state were “planning to travel armed to Washington D.C. for tomorrow’s protests there.”
Source: Evidence of Armed Trump Extremists Continues to Emerge in January 6 Cases – Mother Jones
All indications are that Trump is going to cast the midterm elections as a referendum on himself rather than on Biden. That’s hardly surprising, given Trump’s sociopathic ego. He cast his entire presidency as a referendum on himself.
Source: How Trump Might Save the Democrats | The Smirking Chimp
Murdoch continues to provide human garbage with a platform to spread his filth
Trump said, “We have hundreds of thousands of people coming in from Haiti.” That’s a lie. He continued, “Haiti has a tremendous AIDS problem. AIDS is a step beyond. AIDS is a real bad problem. So hundreds of thousands of people are coming into our country and if you look at the stats, you look at the numbers. Just take a look what’s happening in Haiti. A tremendous problem with AIDS.” What stats and numbers is he quoting? The Russian Trump Tower memos? Does Trump believe a person catches AIDS from a handshake or a cough? “Many of those people probably will have AIDS, and they’re coming into our country, and we don’t do anything about it. We let everybody come in. Sean, it’s like in a death wish. It’s like a death wish for our country!” What a garbage human being Donald Traitor Trump is.
Hannity immediately changed the subject.
Source: Trump Racist Rant: Haitian Migrants Are Bringing AIDS To Infect Us | Crooks and Liars
For all such righteous splutters, Dershowitz and Trump have a point in pointing out a symptom of the US body politic that has become cripplingly apparent: business and the interests of capitalism have come to control speech, its circulation, its distribution. For decades, they had already come to guide politicians and political parties, exercising influence through campaign donations. Why run for elected office when you can buy it? In 2010, the US Supreme Court decision of Citizens United v Federal Election Commission found that limits upon “independent political spending” from corporations and private interest groups violated the First Amendment. Those with deep purses could only deem this the natural order of things: if you have cash, spend it to influence opinion in the name of free speech. Put rather simply, such speech was a shield big capitalism could well employ if it needed to. (Rep. Lieu, take note.)
Source: Trump, Twitter and the Digital Town Hall – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Melbourne’s rioters honour Trump with their violence
Throwing away any notion of a social contract and that “individualism is just all me, no we” a handful of basically misinformed working-class protesters took to the streets to revolt, protest, tear down the “system” and basically any notion of their part in any social contract. Meanwhile, they were doing the work justifying the extreme right’s demands to change the government who is in their lives. Isn’t it a coincidence that Matthew Guy just became leader of the opposition and needed anti-Dan on the front pages?
More than one Trump-Pence flag was seen amid the crowd, along with a red MAGA cap or two. The disparate group of unionists, anti-vaxxers, anarchists, right wingers (including Proud Boys and neo-Nazis) and general troublemakers shut down parts of a city already crippled by COVID-19. Their agenda, apparently initially sparked by suspension of access to tea rooms and mandated vaccination due to viral spread in the construction sector, was hijacked. It morphed into a general protest against authority, targeted at lockdowns, government, police and even the construction union.
Source: Melbourne’s rioters honour Trump with their violence
As the Trumpist movement escalates its assault on American democracy and society, the country’s political and leadership class cannot reasonably claim the defense of ignorance, or protest that this was all so “unprecedented” and came as a total surprise.
Trump knew he had a very short time to break everything and he did. Because he knew it takes much longer to fix things. However he was the one who did it.
Trump was a true rule-breaker who did manage to do quite a lot in the international arena, where he had far greater leeway to make changes beyond congressional control. Much of that activity was destructive, because Trump proved quite adept at smashing things. Indeed, Trump smashed things—the Iran nuclear deal, détente with Cuba—not just because of a peevish desire to destroy his predecessor’s legacy but as part of a scorched-earth policy to FUBAR the federal government for generations to come. As a result, Biden will spend much of his term picking up the pieces—and that’s a whole lot harder when you’re in handcuffs.
Donald Trump dispensed with even the pretense of paying tribute to workers on Labor Day. Instead his three word Labor Day Statement, blasted out to his supporters everywhere via the right-wing media machine, was blunt about his political priorities: “Fix 2020 First.”
Source: Trump, Texas, and the MAGA Drive for Power | The Smirking Chimp
Trump gave Republicans permission to be themselves. It “worked” for a time at the expense of the country, and it couldallow them to dominate politics for decades to come. But the party may face a high price for allowing the cruelest and most vicious elements of American society to run rampant. It might take some time, but the Trump effect could very well backfire on them in surprising ways.
Source: Donald Trump May Still Destroy the GOP, After All | Washington Monthly
Law professor Stephen Feldman explains why court-packing should be defended on both moral and political grounds
Source: Trump’s Supreme Court just showed why court-packing is necessary to save U.S. democracy | Salon.com
Washington: Former US president Donald Trump suffered twin setbacks on Friday, local time, when the Justice Department cleared the way to release his tax records and disclosed a memo showing he urged top officials last year to falsely claim his election defeat was “corrupt”. The department, reversing course from the stance it took when Trump was in office, paved the way for the Internal Revenue Service to hand over the Republican businessman-turned-politician’s tax records to congressional investigators – a move he has long fought.
Source: In one-two punch to Donald Trump, Justice Deptartment approves release of taxes, memo
It’s true. The former so-called president wanted “his” Federal Communications Commission to find a way to sanction Saturday Night Live for their satire of his administration. What a stupid snowflake abuse of power move. If you thought it was just the tweets…
Source: Yes, He Wanted FCC To Go After SNL | Crooks and Liars
MAGA
America’s reputation on the global stage appears to have significantly rebounded since former President Donald Trump left office and President Joe Biden became the commander in chief, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday. As Bi
Source: America’s global image under Biden skyrockets compared to Trump, survey finds
This weekend, teachers in more than 30 cities protested against new laws that would limit what they can say in the classroom about racism in the United States. The laws—in Texas, Idaho, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Arizona, North Carolina, and other states—have emerged since George Floyd’s murder in Minnesota, after more teachers expanded lessons about systemic racism. Many of the laws ban schools from exploring “critical race theory,” which holds that any study of American history must acknowledge that racism is deeply embedded in government policies and the legal system. Some of the laws are even more broad, seeking to restrict lessons that focus on marginalized groups or equity. There’s money behind them, too. A new political action committee, the 1776 Project PAC, is fundraising to support school board members and others who push similar bills. The conservatives cheering these new restrictions likely took a recent cue from former President Donald Trump—who during his term accused schools that teach kids about slavery of spreading “hateful lies” and insulting the country’s founders. Trump created the 1776 Commission to promot
The Jerusalem Post reports that Avigdor Lieberman of the “Israel Our Home Party,” who is part of the “Change” coalition, asserted last week that he anticipates that what “everyone saw happen in the Capitol in Washington to happen” in Jerusalem.
Fox News has not mentioned recent remarks in which retired Gen. Michael Flynn, former President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, expressed support for a military coup in the United States.
Source: Fox hasn’t mentioned Flynn’s call for a military coup in the U.S. | Media Matters for America
The Associated Press is flatly denying the Israeli military’s cover story for why it bombarded the al-Jala tower in Gaza, which housed media offices of AP and al-Jazeera, and where dozens of journalists were based. Israel maintains that there was a Hamas intelligence unit in the building that was targeting Israel. This Israeli allegation is, of course, ridiculous. Hamas’s attacks on Israel are via little rockets with no guidance systems. A third of the Hamas rockets are so feeble that they actually land inside Gaza and have hurt Palestinians. The rockets fly blind and most land uselessly in the desert. So what would an “intelligence office” in an office building be doing that posed a danger to Israel? If they were on a computer on the internet, they could be anywhere– they didn’t have to be in the al-Jala.
If Trump runs again, and election fraud takes us back, you know the anger, the self righteousness, will make Trump 1.0 look as mild as flashing a peace symbol, right? Bil Barr will be back. Roger Stone will be back. The crime family will be back. Putin as head adviser will be back: making sure his protégé foolows his lead. Boogaloos, militia-types, Oath Keepers, etc, will be back: Trump’s Brownshirts will be back. And THEY WILL BE BACK WITH A VENGEANCE. Revenge will be how it starts. If justice is not served that will only be the start of an unimaginable living hell.
Source: Inspection- Ride to Hell Again or Justice Well Served? | The Smirking Chimp
“…because Rudy’s an idiot,” Cohen said. “And that’s the problem — Rudy drinks too much. Rudy behaves in such an erratic manner that who knows what’s on those cellphones or what’s on those computers.”
The same Republicans now crying for Kerry to step down were silent when Donald Trump really did leak classified information to a visiting Russian delegation, revealing that Israel had placed a spy inside ISIL.
Source: No, Kerry didn’t Leak Israeli strikes to Zarif; but Trump did leak Israeli Intel to Russia
Biden made 67 false and misleading statements in his first 100 days in office, according to a report Monday from The Washington Post’s fact checker. That compares to 511 such comments from his predecessor Donald Trump in his first 100 days. The Post’s fact checkers characterized the Biden era as “a return to a more typical pattern when it comes to a commander in chief and his relationship with the facts — one that features frequent spin and obfuscation or exaggeration, with the occasional canard.” The team analyzed Biden’s every speech, interview, tweet or public statement, following the same methodology as the database that tallied more than 30,500 false or misleading claims over the course of Trump’s four years in office.
Source: How Many False Claims Did Biden Make In His First 100 Days Compared To Trump? | HuffPost
Lying is all TraitorTrump knows and understands.
Source: Traitor Trump Demands National Guard During AZ’s Third Recount | Crooks and Liars
Trump was not the only rightwing populist on the world stage. A combination of unregulated social media disinformation, backlashes against modernism, efforts to retain undue privilege by domestic ethnic majorities at the expense of disadvantaged minorities, and the elevation advantage-taking con artists have all contributed to the a disturbing global alliance of incompetent authoritarians. Nations as diverse as Brazil, Hungary, India, Russia, Turkey, Poland, Israel, the United Kingdom and the Philippines have all empowered far-right leaders, most with clownish conservative temperaments and a habit of doing more to troll the orthodoxy of international decency than to serve their own people.
Source: Trump Is Gone (For Now), But Right-Wing Populism Is Still a Global Curse | Washington Monthly
For example, when people are not paying what is legally required of them it means that someone else is not getting help recovering from their drug addictions, so instead they turn to crime. It means that the roads and bridges are not safe. It means that kids do not have access to preschool. Because the rich are not paying the taxes they owe and otherwise hiding income, it means that they are a de facto criminal class. The 1 percent are literally becoming wealthier and more powerful from criminal behavior. They use their influence to change the laws so that they pay fewer taxes, and this includes underfunding the IRS.
Source: Legal scholar Jennifer Taub on Trump as a symptom of America’s massive inequality | Salon.com
Trump appeared entirely convinced that the insurrection was mostly peaceful and fun-loving, only briefly clarifying to Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the rioters who breached the building “shouldn’t have done it.” He railed against law enforcement for “persecuting” the rioters, arguing that “some of them went in and they’re, they’re hugging and kissing the police and the guards.”
Trump tries to defend Capitol rioters on Fox News, gets shut down by Laura Ingraham | Salon.com
Texas Wax Museum Removes Trump Figure Because People Keep Punching It
Removed: People Keep Punching Wax Dummy Of President Stupid | Crooks and Liars
If a Mango Mussolini says get your vaccine, but Fox News doesn’t cover it, does it make a sound in the forest?
Fox News Failed To Cover Donald’s Call To Get Vaccinated | Crooks and Liars
As the Trump Party takes over the GOP, anti-Trump Republicans are abandoning the party in droves – thereby weakening it for general elections while simultaneously strengthening Trump’s hand inside it. It’s great news for Democrats and Joe Biden.
Why Trump’s Takeover of the GOP is Great for Biden and the Democrats (but a Potential Disaster for America) | The Smirking Chimp
Trump declared in Helsinki, standing next to Vladimir Putin, that he trusted the Russian leader, but not the American intelligence services. By putting his trust in Putin, a former KGB colonel, saying that he took him at his word when he denied interfering in the 2016 presidential election, Trump reiterated his denunciations of American intelligence services.
Trump intelligence chiefs hid evidence of Russian election interference – Raw Story – Celebrating 16 Years of Independent Journalism
Is this ‘the most innocent man anywhere in the history of the United States’?
Donald Trump: what crimes has the ex-president been accused of?
The odious Trump once smugly observed that “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” When it comes to the Republican base, he was clearly correct. The opinion polling shows that registered Republicans still overwhelmingly support Trump even after he unleashed a mob on the Capitol in a way that resulted in the murder of policeman Brian Sicknick. What Trump did not imply, and what no one could have foreseen, was that even the man he shot would continue to vote for him. The 43 Republican senators who voted to acquit Trump were in mortal danger of their lives on January 6, and had they been evacuated only a few moments later than they were, some of them would likely have been taken hostage. We know that behind the scenes the Republican senators are furious at the former president for so endangering them, and that they talk dirty about him among themselves. And yet. And yet.
Who were the Republican Senators afraid of when they Acquitted their own attempted murderer?
I analyzed all of Trump’s tweets to find out what he was really saying
The tally was in, it was clear Donald Trump had lost – and he tweeted: “either a new election should take place or … results nullified.” It sounds familiar, but it wasn’t November 2020. It was February 2016. Trump was just months into his presidential campaign, and was already telling a story he would tell countless times over the following five years, hinting to the world at the character of the man the U.S. Senate will soon evaluate in the impeachment trial. Back then, Trump was seeking to nullify Ted Cruz’s victory. And he was accusing Iowa of bungling the primary vote counting.
I analyzed all of Trump’s tweets to find out what he was really saying
This week’s Senate trial is unlikely to convict Donald Trump of inciting sedition against the United States. At least 17 Republican senators are needed for conviction, but only five have signaled they’ll go along.
The Monstrous Predicament Trump Left Behind | The Smirking Chimp
However, decades of research on social influence, persuasion and psychology show that the messages that people encounter heavily influence their decisions to engage in certain behaviors.
Yes, Speech can Incite Violence: What Decades of Research Show about Trump’s Impeachment Trial
Next week Republicans in Washington have one more chance to turn their backs on fascism. They could reject the laughable claims from Trump’s lawyers that he was merely exercising his free speech rights by telling his mob to march on Congress and fight like hell. Apparently such conduct does not constitute incitement to riot, because the word “incitement” has lost all relationship to reality. Nobody expects Republican senators to vote in enough numbers to convict Trump of the obvious charges that played out on television. Nobody expects enough of them to reject the violent overthrow of the democracy that put them in the Senate. They represent, to use Bush’s language, a hostile regime inside the nation’s capital. Until Republicans split with the insurrectionists – by ejecting them from their party or forming their own – democracy itself is unsafe.
Democracy or the white supremacist mob: which side is the Republican party on? | Donald Trump | The Guardian
A clear majority of Americans want twice-impeached former President Donald Trump to be convicted by the Senate and barred from holding office in the future, according to polling results released Monday, the same day the House of Representatives delivered an article of impeachment against Trump for “incitement of insurrection” to the upper chamber of Congress.
Poll: Majority Want Trump Barred From Holding Future Office | Crooks and Liars
